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GIVING MEDICINES
As Mary Poppins sings, "A spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down." Add a large measure of creative marketing as the finishing touch. Try these tricks: Match the medicine to the mouth The same medication may come in a
variety of flavors and forms. Stick to your baby's preferences. Generic brands
may have a harsher taste.
Try magic paste Most babies prefer liquid, but if your baby is a
spitter or a sprayer, ask your doctor if the medication comes in a chewable
tablet form. Crush the tablet between two spoons and add a drop or two of water
to make a thick paste. Apply a little bit (a fingertipful) of the paste at a
time to the inside of your baby's cheek, and it will be swallowed without a
struggle. The flavor of chewable tablets is usually more pleasant. This is
even true of acetaminophen.
Make a cheek pocket This is our family secret for giving medicine to
veteran spitters (be sure you have the medicine within reach and ready to go
before you start this procedure): Cradle baby's head in the crook of your arm.
With the same hand, encircle baby's cheek and use your middle or index finger to
pull out the corner of his mouth, making a pocket in his cheek. With the other
hand drop the medicine into this cheek pocket a little at a time. This hold
keeps baby's mouth open and his head still. Best of all, the traction on baby's
cheek with your finger keeps him from spitting the medicine back out. Maintain
the traction until all the medicine has gone down. Necessity is the mother of
invention, or in this case the father. I discovered this technique when Martha,
the queen medicine-giver in our family, left me alone at medicine time with
eighteen-month-old Stephen.
Use the art of camouflage You can bury a crushed pill in a sandwich
– jam it into the jam, place the paste under the peanut butter – or chase it
with a small amount of milk, formula, or juice. Make the medicine as palatable
as possible without fibbing that the medication is "candy."
Try spoons, droppers, and other medicine helpers A shallow plastic
medicine teaspoon (calibrated and available at pharmacies) is easier to use than
a teaspoon. To wipe the remaining medicine from the spoon, use the upper lip
sweep, sweeping the bowl against the inside of your baby's lip as you pull the
spoon from your baby's mouth. A calibrated medicine dropper inserted into the
side of baby's mouth, between cheek and gum, is a proven medicine-giving aid.
Squirt in a few drops at a time in between swallows. Some babies accept
medicines best from a tiny plastic cup, which can also be used to catch and
recycle the dribbles.
Aim wisely Try to avoid sensitive areas in the mouth. The tastebuds
are concentrated toward the front and center of baby's tongue. The roof of the
mouth and the back of the tongue are gag-sensitive areas. Best is the side
pocket between gum and cheek, to the rear of the mouth.
What if baby spits up the medicine?
The intestines absorb most medications within a half-hour to forty-five minutes.
If your baby has retained the medicine that long, it is usually unnecessary to
make up the dose. If baby spits up the medicine immediately, repeat the dosage
– unless precise dosing is necessary, as is the case with some heart and asthma
medicines. If the child spits up an antibiotic within ten minutes after
administration, repeat the dose.
Sometimes a baby is too sick to retain oral medicine and spits up every dose. This is common with oral fever medications, such as acetaminophen. In this case, use the fever-lowering medicine in suppository form. Also, your doctor may prescribe an anti-vomiting suppository to be given twenty to thirty minutes before an oral dosage, which may help the oral medicine stay down. If your baby becomes so sick that he can't keep an antibiotic down (too lethargic to take, too much vomiting to retain), this is a sign that the medical condition may have worsened and a call to your doctor is warranted. Oftentimes an injection of an antibiotic may give the child a boost so he is able to take the oral medication. Some new antibiotics, available only by injection, work extremely fast, but they are very expensive. |
AskDrSears.com is intended to help parents become better informed consumers of health care. The information presented in this site gives general advice on parenting and health care. Always consult your doctor for your individual needs.
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